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Image: DAVID GRAY / AFP
Numerous governments around the world are moving at an unprecedented pace to rein in children’s access to social media, ushering in what could be one of the most significant shifts in digital policy this decade.
At the forefront is Australia, which on December 10, 2025, became the first country in the world to enforce a blanket ban on social media accounts for children under 16.
Under the new law, platforms must block Australians younger than 16 from services including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit or face fines of up to A$49.5 million for non-compliance, a watershed moment in global tech regulation.
That landmark move has acted as a spark, lighting similar debates across Europe, Asia and beyond.
European regulators have been among the most vocal, though their strategies vary.
The European Parliament has called for harmonised minimum ages for social platforms and data services, urging age-appropriate online engagement across the bloc.
Countries within the EU are already contemplating or adopting national versions of age limits:
Denmark has announced plans to ban social media access for children under 15, with a possible parental exemption from age 13, a move that, if enacted, would be one of the bloc’s most ambitious age restrictions yet.
In 2023, France in 2023 passed a law requiring parental consent for users under 15 on social platforms, although implementation has been slow due to technical hurdles.
Several other EU states, including Germany, Italy and Norway, are refining their own approaches, from consent-based systems to proposals to raise the minimum age for social media use.
At the platform level, TikTok has begun rolling out enhanced age-detection technology across Europe to better enforce age rules and reduce underage access, a sign of how tech firms are being nudged into co-creating enforcement mechanisms with regulators.
The ripple effects extend well beyond Europe and Australia.
In Asia, reports suggest countries like India require verifiable parental consent for under-18 users, a stricter threshold than most Western norms, while Indonesia has floated minimum age proposals inspired by Australia’s example.
Moving east, China’s cyberspace regulator operates “minor mode” restrictions, limiting screen time and content based on age across apps. While not an outright age-ban, the programme shows a very different model of state-led digital regulation.
In Malaysia, authorities have signalled plans to ban social media use for under-16s starting in 2026, a development that would align it with Australia’s strictest policies.
As 2026 unfolds, the global landscape of social media age restrictions is in flux.
Australia’s bold experiment will be scrutinised for both its effectiveness and unintended consequences, while Europe’s more incremental approach could set the tone for multilateral standards.
Meanwhile, countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas are debating their own frameworks, from bans and age thresholds to consent requirements and safety codes.
What’s clear is that nations are no longer content to leave children’s digital experiences solely in the hands of Silicon Valley. After years of debate, the age of digital childhood, and who gets to decide it, has become a defining policy frontier of the 2020s.
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